Nigel Rodley facts for kids
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Sir Nigel Simon Rodley KBE (born Rosenfeld; 1 December 1941 – 25 January 2017) was an international lawyer and professor.
Contents
Personal life
Rodley was born in the West Riding of Yorkshire on 1 December 1941 to Hans Israel Rosenfeld and Rachel (née Kantorowitz). His parents later changed their name to Rodley. His father, who served in the British Army under the name John Peter Rodley, was killed in action in the Netherlands in September 1944. He was educated at Clifton College, where he was a member of Polack's, the Jewish boarding house. He was of Jewish descent.
As well as his native English, he spoke French, German, and Spanish.
Rodley married Lynette Bates in Leeds in 1967. He died aged 75 on 25 January 2017.
Professional positions
Rodley was:
- a member of the UN Human Rights Committee, a body of 18 human rights experts that monitors UN member states' compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights(between 2001 and 2016), and
- a Commissioner of the International Commission of Jurists,
- a founding member and former Executive Committee Vice-Chairman of INTERIGHTS: International Centre for the Legal Protection of Human Rights.
- a member of the Executive Committee of the David Davies Memorial Institute of International Studies.
- a trustee of Freedom from Torture.
- a member of the International Independent Group of Eminent Persons, (IIGEP), a group of experts invited by the President of Sri Lanka Mahinda Rajapaksa to observe the workings of a Presidential Commission of Inquiry into serious Human Rights violations in Sri Lanka,
- a member of the Crimes Against Humanity Initiative Advisory Council, a project of the Whitney R. Harris World Law Institute at Washington University School of Law in St. Louis to establish the world’s first treaty on the prevention and punishment of crimes against humanity.
Education
Rodley had degrees from:
- LLD – Dalhousie University, 2000 (honorary)
- PhD – University of Essex, 1992
- LLM – New York University, 1970
- LLM – Columbia University, 1965
- LLB – University of Leeds, 1963
Academic posts
Most recently, he was:
- Professor of Law and Chair of the Human Rights Centre, University of Essex, having taught there since 1990.
He had formerly taught at:
- Dalhousie University,
- the Graduate Faculty of the New School for Social Research (New York), and
- the London School of Economics.
Former positions
He was formerly:
- UN Special Rapporteur on torture, serving in this capacity from 1993 to 2001,
- working at UN Headquarters in New York City,
- for Amnesty International, Legal Advisor and Head of the Legal and Intergovernmental Organisations Office (1973–1990),
Lectures
- United Nations Treaty and Charter-based Human Rights Bodies: Competitive or Complementary? in the Lecture Series of the United Nations Audiovisual Library of International Law
Awards
- Recipient of the American Society of International Law's 2005 Goler T. Butcher Medal [1] for distinguished work in human rights.
- A KBE in recognition of his services to human rights and international law (1998).
